DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in the Republic of Korea on 2023-10-31. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the 10-2023-0147850 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in the Republic of Korea on 2024-01-31. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the 10-2024-0015115 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Fig. 1 does not label all the input packets. There are curly braces indicating “Input packets 110_1” and “Input packets 110_2”, however the curly braces do not indicate the illustrations beneath them. This results in the visual representation of two of the packet illustrations being unlabeled.
The drawings are objected to because Fig. 1 does not label the connections and arrows between components. The following arrows and connections are unlabeled: arrow pointing from Electronic device 120_1 to Control device 130; arrow pointing from Control device 130 to Electronic device 120_1; arrow pointing from Control device 130 to Circuit switch 145; connection between Circuit switch 145 and Electronic device 120_1; connection between Circuit switch 145 and Electronic device 150; connection between Packet switch 140 and Electronic device 150; connection between Packet switch 140 and Electronic device 120-2; and connections between Packet switch 140 and Electronic devices receiving the unlabeled packets.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
In addition to Replacement Sheets containing the corrected drawing figure(s), applicant is required to submit a marked-up copy of each Replacement Sheet including annotations indicating the changes made to the previous version. The marked-up copy must be clearly labeled as “Annotated Sheets” and must be presented in the amendment or remarks section that explains the change(s) to the drawings. See 37 CFR 1.121(d)(1). Failure to timely submit the proposed drawing and marked-up copy will result in the abandonment of the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Patent US 9450884 B2 by Hwang et al.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Hwang et al. teaches determine a traffic demand (number of data flows traversing the target port) for a network connection (col 4, lines 57-60: The SDN controller is configured to determine an over-subscription ratio. The over-subscription ratio is a ratio of the bandwidth allocation of the target port to a number of data flows traversing the target port | col 9, lines 15-21: In various embodiments, the SDN controller 230 may be a network controller that is capable of obtaining data packets associated with one or more data flows, controlling one or more characteristics of data flows (e.g., alter the data flow's path, adjusting the bandwidth allocated data flows, and the like), collecting statistics and/or other like information about data flows, and the like.); based on the traffic demand, determine a burst level for traffic of a predetermined time period and transmit the burst level to a control device (col 11, lines 29-32: In various embodiments, the VSS 220 may monitor their own ports and may send information about data flows traversing their ports to the SDN controller 230); by comparing the burst level (number of data flows traversing the target port) with a threshold value determined by the control device, determine whether the traffic demand is in a traffic over-demand state (over-subscription ratio) (col 23, lines 42-48: determining, by the network controller, an over-subscription ratio, the over-subscription ratio being a ratio of the bandwidth allocation of the target port to a number of data flows traversing the target port; transmitting, by the network controller, the over-subscription ratio to the network Switching element based on the over-subscription ratio and a threshold value); receive a token for connecting to a circuit switch to distribute the traffic demand; and when the traffic demand is in the traffic over-demand state, connect to the circuit switch through the token (token ring) (col 10, lines 29-40: In embodiments utilizing a wired connection, pNICs 225 may be configured to operate in accordance with a wired communications protocol. Such as a serial communications protocol (e.g., the Universal Serial Bus (USB), FireWire, Serial Digital Interface (SDI), and/or other like serial communications protocols), a parallel communications protocol (e.g., IEEE 1284, Computer Automated Measurement And Control (CAMAC), and/or other like parallel communications protocols), and/or a network communications protocol (e.g., Ethernet, token ring, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), and/or other like network communications protocols).
Regarding claims 2 and 13, Hwang et al. teaches cause the electronic device to, when the traffic demand is not in the traffic over-demand state or when the connection of the circuit switch is terminated (priority level), transmit the token (token ring) to a next electronic device in a predetermined order (communications protocols) (col 10, lines 29-40 | col 14, lines 34-50).
Regarding claims 3 and 14, Hwang et al. teaches determine a time (timeout value) to connect to the circuit switch (each virtual switch), based on the burst level (data flow); and connect to the circuit switch during the time (col 20, lines 59-67 and col 21, lines 1-13: It should be noted that if the timeout value is relatively large, the SDN controller 230 may be slow to detect idle data flows. In such instances, bandwidth allocated to those data flows may be unused while the data flows remain in the idle state, thereby resulting in wasted bandwidth. However, if the timeout value is relatively small, the SDN controller 230 may determine that a data flow is in an idle state when it is not actually in an idle state (e.g., a “false alarm' or a “false positive”). In Such instances, extra overhead may occur as a US 9,450,884 B2 21 result of the SDN controller 230 adjusting the weight values more frequently than necessary. Therefore, in various embodiments, the timeout value may be dynamically adjusted in order to reduce the chances that bandwidth is allocated to idle data flows and/or to reduce the changes that false positives are detected. The timeout value may be dynamically adjusted between a minimum value T and a maximum value T. The values T, and T may be set differently for each virtual Switch. In various embodiments, values T, and T may be any value, however, in many embodiments, T is set to a value that is larger than a RTT for a data flow traversing the target port.).
Regarding claims 4 and 15, Hwang et al. teaches wherein the threshold value is determined based on a burst level of each electronic device connected to the control device (col 23, lines 42-48).
Regarding claims 5 and 16, Hwang et al. teaches wherein the threshold value is determined as one burst level among burst levels of electronic devices connected to the control device (col 23, lines 42-48).
Regarding claims 6 and 17, Hwang et al. teaches wherein the token is transmitted in a predetermined order between electronic devices connected to the control device (col 10, lines 29-40).
Regarding claims 7 and 18, Hwang et al. teaches cause the electronic device to determine the traffic demand using count-min sketch (CMS) (data structures) (col 6, lines 63-67 and col 7, lines 1-6: A code segment may represent a procedure, a function, a Subprogram, a program, a routine, a Subroutine, a module, a Software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware US 9,450,884 B2 7 circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any Suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.).
Regarding claim 8, Hwang et al. teaches being a switch used in top of rack (ToR) (Fig 1. Edge Top-of-Rack (ToR)).
Regarding claim 9, Hwang et al. teaches cause the control device to: obtain a burst level for traffic of a predetermined time period of connected electronic devices (col 20, lines 59-67 and col 21, lines 1-13); based on the burst level, determine a threshold value to determine a traffic over-demand; and transmit the threshold value to each electronic device (col 4, lines 60-64: The SDN controller is configured to transmit the over-subscription ratio to the aggregation Switch based on the over-subscription ratio and a threshold value).
Regarding claim 10, Hwang et al. teaches wherein the electronic device is configured to, by comparing the burst level with the threshold value, determine whether a traffic demand of the electronic device is in a traffic over-demand state (col 23, lines 42-48).
Regarding claim 11, Hwang et al. teaches wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to determine one burst level among burst levels of the connected electronic devices as the threshold value (col 23, lines 42-48).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NOAH BEAMON whose telephone number is (571) 272-5443. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Glenton Burgess, can be reached at telephone number (571) 272-3949. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from Patent Center. Status information for published applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Patent Center to authorized users only. Should you have questions about access to the USPTO patent electronic filing system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
Examiner interviews are available via a variety of formats. See MPEP § 713.01. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/InterviewPractice.
/NOAH BEAMON/Examiner, Art Unit 2454
/JOHN A FOLLANSBEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2444